


Broken/Whole

by Cumberbatch Critter (ivelostmyspectacles)



Series: Ignoct Week 2017 [13]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Scars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-12-11 11:44:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11713734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/Cumberbatch%20Critter
Summary: "It isn't important.""It- it is. This isbig, you... took these scars for me. I want to know. I want to... help, if I can."It's only in the aftermath, when things have settled down, that Noctis notices Ignis has more scars than he's let on.Day Seven (da da da DAH) of Ignoct Week! Prompt:Scars/Scar Worship





	Broken/Whole

For awhile, he didn’t know the extent of Ignis’s wounds.

It took a couple of weeks, he guessed, and he hated that it took him that long to notice. He only found out by accident, in the end.

It was when they were still in Altissia, when the city was still recovering. When _they_ were still recovering. After Noctis had finally been able to drag himself out of bed, to check up on Prompto (he was taking Luna’s death hard), and to find himself the point of ire from Gladiolus (he didn’t have the strength to ask). He’d let himself into Ignis’s room without knocking, his mistake, he’d apologized for it later. Ignis had been getting dressed and he had… scars. More scars than the ones that he had known about, and he froze with his hand on the doorknob.

Ignis actually flinched, looking at the doorway even as he made a grab for his pants, and Noct hastened to announce himself.

“Just me, sorry.”

“Noct.” Ignis slowed, if only just. “My apologies, I didn’t hear you knock.”

“No, I– I didn’t, sorry.” His eyes were locked on the horrible looking scars along Ignis’s torso. Seeing him stripped down to his boxers wasn’t a new thing, but those scars _were_. “I wasn’t thinking… Ignis, you…”

“Have scars, yes,” he said crisply. He shook out his pants and felt for the edge of the bed to sit down. “I am aware.” He put one leg through a pantsleg, and then the other, and his shoulders stayed slumped when he sat up straight. “Unless you’re talking about something else, in which case… I probably haven’t noticed.” He hadn’t looked up. His head was lowered as he felt for his shirt on the bed, the other arm braced against his knee and blocking Noctis’s line of vision of those scars he hadn’t known about.

Noct didn’t know much about body language, but everything about the way Ignis was sitting or moving didn’t ooze being comfortable. Ignis was always that, with him.

“Specs.” He crossed the room, lightly taking his wrist. “Ignis. Why didn’t you say?”

A brief smile, and an even more brief flash of a glance. “It isn’t important.”

“It– it is.” He tangled his fingers with Ignis’s. “This is _big_ , you… took these scars for me. I want to know. I want to… help, if I can.”

“I have been reliably informed that nothing will help,” Ignis replied. He started to pull away, but Noctis held fast. “Noctis…”

“Then I want to know, I still want to know, don’t take all of this on yourself. I… I may have lost L-Luna, but I don’t want to lose you. Any of you. I don’t want secrets, even… even bad ones. Alright? Don’t try to protect me or something.” God, this was hard. He didn’t know how to do _emotions_. He didn’t know how to do relationships. Much less with someone who was more composed and intelligent than he was and had to be _physically_ hurting, those _scars_ –

“I know I’ve already failed on that part, on… on not letting you not getting hurt, but…” He very carefully raised his hand to one of the scars spanning Ignis’s pectoral. He didn’t touch, not immediately, let his fingers hover so that Ignis could feel his presence there. He felt him, and heard him, suck in a sharp breath. “Let me share the new parts of you. And I’ll try to… try to let you in, too, it’s just rough–”

Ignis took his hand and pressed it flush against the jagged scar.

Noctis almost pulled his hand away on reflex, especially when Ignis’s earlier inhale turned to a ragged hiss of pain.

“Iggy–”

“No, it’s fine,” Ignis interrupted. His eyes were closed. Squeezed shut, even as he held Noctis’s hand fast against his chest. “Well, it hurts.” He laughed. It was strained, wobbly even. “Right?” and he opened his eyes to look at him.

He didn’t want to think of Luna, he didn’t want to think of reaching out and being unable to save her. He did, anyway. “… Yeah.” Physical and emotional scars. One was as bad as the other, and they were both plagued with either of them. Both of them.

The smile was still on his face when Ignis spoke again, but it was a little more self-deprecating. “I’m sure it hurts to look at, too. These scars.” He’d turned away again. He probably would have already gotten his shirt on if he wasn’t still holding Noctis’s hand to his chest.

They did. But probably not in the way Ignis seemed to be self-conscious about. “Dunno,” Noct said quietly. He gently pulled his hand away. “I think there’s something kind of beautiful about them.” There were large, and rough, and one against his bicep spanned the length of Noct’s entire hand. But… “You were stronger than what tried to hurt you.” Very carefully, he leaned down to kiss that particular scar.

Another inhale, but Noctis’s touch was feather-light. He trusted he wasn’t hurting him. He pressed another kiss to the uneven edge of the scar, and then moved to the one on his chest. There was a nearly healed scrape across his abs that Noctis brushed his fingers along, and then raised his head to Ignis’s.

“Words of wisdom,” Ignis said, and looked at him for a long moment. “They apply to all kinds of scars, too.”

He nodded. Yeah. Ignis’s scars, and his. All of theirs. It’d be harder to follow his own words of wisdom, but…

After brushing a piece of Ignis’s hair out of his face– still wet, he must have caught him coming from the shower– he leaned in to kiss the scar over his eyebrow, and the bridge of his nose, and the largest, likely most damaging scar over his eye. He lingered, feeling awkward– didn’t know how to do this, either, didn’t know how to be soft and romantic and supportive– before moving to kiss his lips. They hadn’t been doing much kissing in the past weeks, but that one still seemed to be tender. Ignis made a noise that wasn’t altogether good, but he kissed him back anyway. Slowly. Indulgently. And a little bit infused with the pain that they shared that wasn’t completely physical.

Ignis leaned forward to press his forehead against Noctis’s. His eyes were closed. Noctis closed his, too.

They found each other’s hands to hold again, and stayed in the bedroom together. There were no more words to be shared. Just careful touches of shared strength, and scars that still needed time to heal.

**Author's Note:**

> Tender kissing on the scars. Ignis having more scars than just the ones on his face. Both of them having emotional scars. Yes. Please. All of it. You have no idea how much I have loved this idea since I played this chapter in the game.


End file.
